Consistency and Coherence in Hiring Decisions

Kanchan Mukherjee and Ashna Sehgal

2025

Working Paper No

719

Body

This study was undertaken to examine the nature of inconsistencies in the hiring decisions taken by individuals working within a single large company and compare it with those who are not associated with any single firm. The primary focus was to explore a) variations in the weight attributed to different selection criteria, b) variation in the hiring decisions made by the employees, and c) coherence between the weight attributed to different selection criteria and the hiring choice made by each participant. For purpose of the same, the participants were asked to respond to two hypothetical hiring scenarios and attribute differential weights to four selection criteria (Academic Performance, Involvement in extracurricular activities, Functional Expertise, and Likelihood of accepting the job offer). The study was carried out on a sample of 118 MBA graduates studying at a premier business school and a sample of 240 working professionals employed at a large multinational automobile manufacturing firm. The result obtained confirmed the existence of within-organization differences in the weight attributed to different selection criteria and the hiring decisions made by the individuals. No significant difference in the nature of hiring decisions was observed between individuals working for a specific firm and those not associated with any single firm. A lack of congruence was observed between the weight attributed to selection criteria by the decision-makers and the hiring decision made by them. The data was analyzed for exploring differences in hiring decisions of employees differing in terms of the hierarchical level, work division, educational qualification, and age.

Key words

Inter-rater agreement, Intra-rater agreement, selection criteria

WP No. 719_0.pdf (893.63 KB)

Consistency and Coherence in Hiring Decisions

Author(s) Name: Kanchan Mukherjee and Ashna Sehgal, 2025

Working Paper No : 719

Abstract:

This study was undertaken to examine the nature of inconsistencies in the hiring decisions taken by individuals working within a single large company and compare it with those who are not associated with any single firm. The primary focus was to explore a) variations in the weight attributed to different selection criteria, b) variation in the hiring decisions made by the employees, and c) coherence between the weight attributed to different selection criteria and the hiring choice made by each participant. For purpose of the same, the participants were asked to respond to two hypothetical hiring scenarios and attribute differential weights to four selection criteria (Academic Performance, Involvement in extracurricular activities, Functional Expertise, and Likelihood of accepting the job offer). The study was carried out on a sample of 118 MBA graduates studying at a premier business school and a sample of 240 working professionals employed at a large multinational automobile manufacturing firm. The result obtained confirmed the existence of within-organization differences in the weight attributed to different selection criteria and the hiring decisions made by the individuals. No significant difference in the nature of hiring decisions was observed between individuals working for a specific firm and those not associated with any single firm. A lack of congruence was observed between the weight attributed to selection criteria by the decision-makers and the hiring decision made by them. The data was analyzed for exploring differences in hiring decisions of employees differing in terms of the hierarchical level, work division, educational qualification, and age.

Keywords: Inter-rater agreement, Intra-rater agreement, selection criteria

WP No. 719_0.pdf (893.63 KB)